1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to transducers for electrical stringed instruments, and, in particular, to a transducer, such as a pickup, for an electrical stringed instrument, such as an electrical guitar, that provides for capacitive touch to control the functionality and features of the transducer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional stringed instruments have a limited audio range. For example, the conventional six string electric guitar has a limited tonal spectrum and is able to achieve sounds above the lowest open string (when tuned at standard “A 440 Hz” the lowest open string, “E”), which vibrates at 82.41 Hz when plucked.
In the case of conventional electric guitars, while there is typically some overlap in the audio ranges of a lead guitar and a bass guitar, the lead guitar cannot produce the range that the bass guitar can produce. Consequently, it is common for many types of bands or musical groups to include a musician who plays lead guitar, and a second musician who plays bass guitar.
It would thus be advantageous to have an electrical stringed instrument, such as an electric guitar, with an extended audio range that allows a single performer to produce audio in two or more ranges, preferably from the same string or strings. U.S. Pat. No. 8,502,061, entitled “Electrical Stringed Instrument and Signal Processing Circuit Therefor” and owned by the assignee hereof, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes such an instrument. More specifically, the '061 patent describes a guitar and a pick-up unit that is structured to implement a methodology for extending the range of an electrical stringed musical instrument (e.g., a conventional lead guitar) that employs first and second pickup circuits, wherein the first pickup circuit is associated with a first set of the strings of the instrument (e.g., all of the strings) and the second pickup circuit is associated with only a subset of the strings of the instrument (e.g., the low E and A strings). According to the methodology, the first pickup circuit is structured to produce a first electrical signal corresponding to a first audio range in response to vibration of one or more of the strings in the subset, and similarly the second pickup circuit is structured to produce a second electrical signal corresponding to the first audio range in response to vibration of the one or more of the strings in the subset. However, also according to the methodology, the second electrical signal is converted into a third electrical signal corresponding to a second audio range different than the first audio range (e.g., one octave lower) using a signal processor of the second pickup circuit. As a result, a user of the instrument is able to produce sounds in both the first audio range and the second audio range using the subset of strings, and may do so simultaneously. Thus, in the case where the instrument is a conventional lead guitar, the user may generate conventional lead guitar sounds and bass guitar sounds by strumming the subset of strings, and may do so simultaneously.
Furthermore, in the methodology described in the '061 patent, if multiple strings from the subset of strings (e.g., all of the strings in the subset) are played at the same time, the signal from each of those strings will be converted to the lower audio range and multiple bass notes will be resounded. This will often result in an undesirable muddy or muddled sound. In order to address this issue, U.S. Pat. No. 9,064,483, entitled “System And Method for Identifying and Converting Frequencies on Electrical Stringed Instruments” and owned by the assignee hereof, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, provides an enhancement of the system and methodology of the '061 patent that prevents muddled bass chords from resounding through an amplifier by giving the lowest analog note (often the “root”) produced by the playing (strumming) of the strings from the subset of strings “priority” and only converting that note/signal to the lower audio range and subsequently outputting it through an amplifier (referred to herein as “low note priority”). In particular, the '483 patent describes a number of pick-up units that implement low note priority functionality that may be used in a guitar as described in the '061 patent.
While the methodologies just described have been proven to be quite advantageous and successful in the industry, there remains room for improvement in the field of electrical stringed instruments, and in particular in connection with electrical transducers, such as pickups, used therewith.